The present invention relates to an infant care apparatus and, more particularly, to an incubator having removable doors.
There are, of course, various infant incubators currently in use and all typically comprise an infant compartment within which the infant is positioned in a protective heated environment. There are normally a plurality of walls that are used to surround and enclose the infant and a hood atop of the walls to create that protective environment and to isolate the infant within the infant compartment where that environment is controlled.
It is, obviously, necessary to access the infant within the infant compartment from time to time to carry out an intervention on the infant or simply to place the infant within the infant compartment or remove the infant therefrom. Thus there are movable walls or doors to provide that access. Again, as it typical, the doors are hingedly affixed to the base of the infant compartment and swing outwardly and downwardly to a position where the doors are out of the way of the personnel attending to the infant.
It is necessary, from time to time, to remove the doors fully for cleaning nursing care and during which time, the door is separated from its hinged engagement with the incubator base or chassis. Since the need for cleaning the doors occurs frequently, it is preferable that the doors be capable of being disengaged from the hinge assembly easily, without the need for special tools or the need for maintenance personnel to carry out that removal.
Thus, it is preferable that the door removal be carried out easily by any person responsible for the cleaning or nursing care with a minimum of tools and disruption to the incubator. On the other hand, the hinge assembly or other attachment means must, obviously, safely secure the door to the incubator so as to maintain the integrity of the infant compartment enclosing the infant therein. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an infant incubator having pivotally affixed doors that can be removed easily with a minimum of effort and yet be firmly affixed to the incubator so as to not become disengaged inadvertently.
It would be further preferable for the doors to be readily removable by the user with a simple action using either hand to carry out that disengagement easily and positively.